“Ever the tactical thinker, Princess,” responded Thork. “I could have laid it out no better. We will hew to this plan of yours and see what comes.
“But first, let us rummage among the things stored within this attic, for it may hold that which we can use. . other than chamber pots.”
Quietly, they passed down the length of the attic, searching among the stored goods. Worn carpets and broken furniture and bolts of mouldy cloth they found hidden among the whispering shadows. They came upon empty chests and vacant crates, along with those filled with crockery and clothing. Too, there were rats’ nests and spiderwebs, but these denizens scuttled away as cartons and crates were moved, disturbing their crannies. Often Elyn discovered that she was sifting through goods that she had examined before, for the shadows continued to bewilder her mind and turn her about. But though his vision was often fooled, Thork’s unerring Dwarven footsteps were never lost, and when he noted Elyn’s plight, he guided her as well. Yet in the end, they found nothing of immediate use.
“Kruk! I was hoping that we would find rope,” growled Thork. “If we had enough rope, some to add to that which we already bear, we could use it to rappel down from this spire to the valley below.”
“But Thork,” exclaimed Elyn, “it must be seven or eight hundred feet to the valley floor. Besides, I know not how to rappel.”
“More like a thousand feet, Princess. And as to rappelling, it is a mere matter to teach you,” replied Thork. “And I think that we only have to drop some two hundred feet or so ere we come to where the slopes can be climbed down.”
“Ah, but Thork,” responded Elyn, “if your estimate be right, then we rappel two hundred feet or so, and that leaves some seven hundred feet to climb down: not a swift task. And should it come to that, and they somehow discover our route, say, by finding a dangling rope, then we are like to be greeted by a welcoming committee when we at last come to the valley floor.
“Even so, given no easier choice, rope it shall be; we can search for it as we look for the other: provisions, Adon’s Hammer.”
Slowly, cautiously, they worked their way downward through the building, Thork retracing his steps through the veerings of the night before, Elyn following, coming at last to the great room on the main floor. And the wan light of day struggled with shadow, pressing it back here and there. And even though the writhing murk yet confused Elyn, still it was daylight and she could see: dimly in places where the dark clotted thickly, clear where the light prevailed. Yet, there were places where the blackness was complete, and she saw not at all, and neither did Thork.
Stepping to the door, warily they peered outside. The Sun was on high, and Humans warded the walls. In the bailey, swarthy Men occasionally passed to and fro, and the two could hear the hammering of iron on anvil.
“Let us look for a storeroom,” Elyn said quietly, “and take what provisions we need: food, rope, whatever else. Then we will set watch, and cipher out the castle routine: when the guards change; when, if ever, the portcullis is raised, the gate opened; and where Andrak keeps himself, if not that black tower.”
“Princess, this doorway be not the place to spy out the practices of this keep,” responded Thork. “There be window slits high up that we can peer through to note these things. Aye, let us find provisions, then set watch, but from a safer place than this.”
They found a storeroom off the kitchen. Cured meat hung from overhead beams, yet it was dark, and unknown, and Elyn was revulsed by its smell and shape, and so they took none. Dried lentil beans filled sacks, and oats, and some type of bulbous legume. In one corner Thork found a large supply of field rations, a box of crue among these. Hefting the small crate upon his shoulder, he declared, “This is all that I would take, my Lady, though, by my beard, the beans would make a welcome change.”
Elyn filled a meager cloth bag with the beans and tied its top, and then the two warriors slipped out of the storeroom and through the kitchen and up the stairs to the attic.
On the second floor in the southeast corner of the building they found a musty storage room stacked with furniture; yet it was a room with a window slit overlooking the bailey. From the window they could observe the southern walls of the keep, the main gate, and the black tower abutted against the fortress walls.
And so they watched the rest of that day and part of the night and all the next day and night as well, slipping down from their attic hideaway to observe the strongholt’s routine.
They discovered that Men warded the walls from false dawn till after dusk, and Rutchen warders patrolled the nighttide through. Too, on both evenings just after darkness fell, a Hèlsteed-drawn chariot was brought to the black tower and tethered, yet Andrak had not driven it again since that first night. But while the chariot sat outside the ebon turret, the portcullis was raised, the gate was opened, and the drawbridge was winched outward to span the gap, and the watch atop the walls was doubled.
“This is when we must escape with the Kammerling, Thork,” hissed Elyn when she saw the pattern. “We must trust to the amulet and walk out past the warders, for then the way is open.”
“Mayhap, Lady,” answered Thork. “Yet remember, yesternight when first we saw Andrak, the portcullis was down until he returned in his chariot. And so, if this pattern holds true, should we try to escape while he is away, we will either have to find a way past those bars, or slip through when they are opened for him, or wait until the following night.”
Elyn said nought, but nodded her agreement, and they continued to spy out through the window slit.
After a long while: “Thork, I ween that Adon’s Hammer is most likely to be in the ebon tower,” declared Elyn. “Yet I also ween that the tower holds Andrak’s quarters, and I would rather explore that place when he is not about. Let us wait until he rides that chariot out ere we look within for the Kammerling. In that case, should we be successful, even though Andrak will be away and the portcullis will be down and locked, we will not need to contend with that barway, for we can merely use what rope we have and go over the wall. But in the meantime, given that he remains within his tower, let us begin searching out the rest of the keep, for it is possible that the Kammerling lies within quarters other than those of the black turret, though I doubt it.”
And so, on the third day they began to explore the keep, looking for the hiding place of the Kammerling, though both agreed that the most likely place for the hammer to be was indeed the tower.
The castle was a nightmare of confusion; it was just as the Wolfmage had said of Andrak: “. . he too knows that art of concealment, and weaves his. . magic. . to remain hidden.” And Elyn was bewildered by the twists and turns and strange edges in the veering stone hallways, and disoriented by the coiling, whispering shadows, and at times she swore that they were lost, that they had come this way before; but Thork’s sense of direction, of location, was not fooled, and he led them through the mind-twisting labyrinth.
One to hide, and one to guide, thought Elyn, and she knew that she would be hopelessly lost without Thork and his remarkable Dwarven ability.
And though they looked most carefully through all the rooms on all three floors-chart rooms, wardrooms, living quarters, storerooms, and the like-no trace of the Kammerling did they find.